Textbook: Blum, John M. The National Experience: A History of
the United States. Eighth Edition. Forth Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace,
1993.

Course Setup and Guidelines

This course is designed to provide you with an overview of United States
history from Colonial America to the end of the Civil War. We will go
over major themes in United States history through lecture and discussion,
possible movie watching, timeline exercises, journal keeping, and readings
of primary and secondary sources. Thematically, the class is divided into
four units, and we will hopefully be able to spend an equal amount of
time covering each:

Colonial and Revolutionary America

"Farmer's Republic" to Industrialized Country

Towards a Great Nation--Political Statements and Westward Settlement

Sectionalism and the Civil War

During the semester, I will be stressing a "macro" rather than a "micro"
approach to history. This means that, while there will be lecturing (kept
to a minimum), I am more interested in you understanding the broader themes
of each unit than the specific events and dates of each unit. As such,
the approach is not necessarily chronological, but topical. Be aware that
I consider your textbook as your aid to help you keep a perspective on
what the class is covering. I am more concerned with you keeping up with
the readings from the class handouts.

Units

Each of the units we will cover are listed above, but you should have
an idea of what I will be stressing for each unit.

Colonial and Revolutionary America (Textbook Chapters 1-6)

For this period, we will be considering the formation of the United
States, the first non-European republic in world history. Roughly
spanning from English settlement at Jamestown in 1607 to the end of
the Revolutionary War in 1783, topics we need to consider are why
people came to the United States, what political and religious philosophies
they brought with them, and how these philosophies helped create a
new nation.

For this unit, we will be looking at how the new nation changed from
Jefferson's ideal of a "Farmer's Republic" to a powerful, industrialized
country. This change helped bring about the growing changes in governmental
policy, as evidenced by different presidential elections and several
important court cases.

For our third unit, we will be studying America's movement Westward
and how this move helped shape the country's attitude. Such things
as the Monroe Doctrine, Indian wars, the Louisiana Purchase, the War
of 1812, and Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" will be
considered.

Sectionalism and Civil War (Textbook Chapters 11, 13, 14)

The last unit that we cover in class will analyze how the Civil War
arose from the sectional conflict between North and South that had
been growing since the Revolutionary War.

Grading Policies and Attendance

Attendance

Attendance in this class will play a role in the grades you receive.
You are expected to come to class every week, but it is understandable
that there will be times when you cannot help but miss class. So, I have
set the attendance policy at allowing you to miss six classes (two weeks
of class) without a reduction in your grade. After four absences, however,
you will be automatically dropped if you have reached this number of absences
by midterm or you will automatically fail if you reach this number after
midterm. Be aware that I do not make a distinction between "excused" and
"unexcused" absences.

Grading

Grades in this course will come from a variety of sources, as follows:

Two Writing Projects: 150 points each/300 points total

Journal Notebook: 150 points

Reader Responses: 10 points each, no set number for the course (probably
about 10) **Includes WebBoard Days and Class Activities**

Seminar: 50 points; Each student will attend one Seminar

Two Textbook Exercises: 10 points each/20 points total

Midterm and a Final: 100 points each/200 points total

Participation (Up to the individual)

There will be roughly 820 points possible during the course of the semester
and grades are earned on a 90/80/70/60 scale (not counting participation
-- see below). 300 of the possible grade in this class will come from
two writing projects. These will be assignments for which you will need
to produce a 4 page paper responding to a specific question that I tell
you to write about, all based on the assigned readings that we have in
class. We will go over these assignment more later and we will also have
a week of conferences set aside at midterm and at finals so that I can
help you individually with these projects.

Outside of writing projects, another 200 points of class grades will
consist of a midterm and a final. These will be our class exams and will
cover material from class lecture, activities, and your textbook exercises.
About 100 points will come from Reader Responses. There will be
no set amount of these given, but every time that new readings are assigned,
there will be a reader response given at the beginning of class that you
will be asked to write on a question for that reading. Because these quizzes
are largely for me to make you think about the assignment, each quiz will
only be worth 10 points so that it will not affect your grade too much.
The reader response grade will also reflect the days where all you are
required to do is post your response to the class WebBoard and
when we do different activities and exercises in class. While every other
assignment in class can be made up with the penalty of being reduced by
one letter grade for each class day that it is late, any grade that comes
under the Reader Response heading cannot be made up.

Other grades will include maintaining journal entries. These will
be kept for each unit that we cover and will be collected once during
the semester -- at finals, along with your second writing project. For
each unit, you will be required to keep a journal entry on each assigned
reading that relates how that reading relates to your life or how you
feel. There will be a separate sheet for guidelines
for keeping your journal.

In addition, each student will have to attend one Seminar Day.
Seminars will be divided so that there one day of each unit is devoted
to the seminar, consisting of an introduction by each person, a multiple
choice test, a name game, and writing on short response questions. Most
of these different parts will be done in groups. Each part of that day
will relate directly to the unit we are covering. While the people signed
up for this day must meet then, these will be the only people that do
have to meet at the time -- attendance is not required of the other students.
If you miss the seminar day you are signed up for, you will be able to
make it up by attending one of the later ones, but only if you missed
for a legitimate reason. While you can make these days up, you will still
be counted as absent if you miss the day that you signed up for.

Textbook exercises compose the last section of grade points for
this class. Textbook exercises will be assignments that I give you --
covering both dates and terms/ideas -- which you will need to look through
in your textbook to find. I give you these because it will considerably
narrow down what you will need to look for in your text to know for the
class midterm and final. Because these are designed to help you more than
anything else, they will only be worth 10 points each time you turn them
in (the points are for encouragement to complete the textbook searching).
The first time you turn them in will cover the exercises for unit 1 and
for unit 2 and the second time you turn them in will cover the exercises
for unit 3 and unit 4.

Participation is a large factor in this class. There will be no set points
for participation, but realize that unless you come to class everyday
ready to participate and enter into class discussion that you will not
get an A, regardless of the grades you get on the other assignments. On
the other hand, if you do regularly make good contributions to class discussion
of assigned readings, your grade will reflect it in that you will be bumped
a letter grade. For instance if you have earned a strong C on the graded
assignments, but make meaningful contributions, you will receive a B for
your final semester grade. There will be days that all we do is discuss
assigned readings, so your discussion is vital to this class--you are
largely responsible for making the class run smoothly!!!

You also will have the option for completing extra credit as the semester
goes along. You will get another sheet detailing the
options for extra credit, but be aware that you could earn as much
as thirty points of extra credit. If you earned all thirty points of extra
credit, you could bump your grade by as much as four percentage points.
This means you could go from a mid-C (76%), add on your participation
bump (to a B), add on your extra credit bump (4%), and end up with a final
grade of an A. Likewise, you could go from a mid-D to a B. The other thing
to remember about extra credit is that you must do it as the semester
progresses, so, donŐt put it off until the end of the semester if you
are going to do it!